ASSET MANAGEMENT AND ELECTRONIC CONSIGNMENT

IN THE Herbert River district, around 8000 bins each day of the crushing are assigned via a paper-based system to the cane block from which they were harvested. The Herbert has 20 000 cane blocks. About 3000 errors occur each year during this consignment process, mainly due to human error. These errors cause mill stoppages and can cause cane payment rework. This pilot study consisted of tracking 4500 tonnes of cane from field to factory for the Girgenti harvesting group for a period of two weeks. By linking and utilising various technologies, the opportunity to provide a paperless system with no manual input was realised. As such, the trial was successful in that it provided a proof of concept for full electronic consignment. There was one hundred percent correlation between the hand written consignment of bin numbers by the field crews and the electronic system’s SQL data base. This system has potential to add value to the ‘field to factory’ supply chain. Importantly it will enable new asset management strategies to be adopted.